Husband arrested for Bangalore school teacher’s murder

DHNS

Bangalore, 14 August 2010: Three days after a 29-year-old Delhi Public School (South) teacher was found brutally murdered in her residence near Bannerghatta Road, the police moved swiftly to advance investigations that resulted in the arrest of her husband on Friday. 

 
The woman, Priyanka Gupta, was found murdered in her Venkateshwara Layout apartment on Tuesday with her hands tied and throat slit. Priyanka’s husband, Satish, an employee of Infosys’s Human Resource Department, had initially told the police that at 5:45 am on Tuesday  she called him when he was on a walk to inform him that some newspaper agents were at the door trying to sell subscription.

On Thursday, the police were able to ascertain that Priyanka had not called Satish at all. Verification of phone records indicated that Satish took Priyanka’s phone along on his walk and called himself using his wife’s handset.

 “That was done to create an alibi and divert the police’s attention,” an officer associated with the investigation told Deccan Herald.

The police arrested him on Wednesday night at Hulimavu and produced him before the magistrate’s court at Koramangala on Friday. “We have arrested Satish. He is in police custody. We have subjected him to a detailed interrogation,” said Commissioner of Police Shankar Bidari. The police are likely to subject him to a medical test.

Satish reportedly told the police he eliminated his wife as he was fed up with her attitude. She would always make fun of his sexual vitality. She would always call him up on his mobile phone and disturb him. She would protest whenever he went to his parents’ house.

Satish said Priyanka would take sleeping pills and had taken some tablets before the incident. On the day of her murder, he invited her for a game. He closed her eyes with a scarf and asked her to touch him. A few minutes later, he suggested that they play some other game. He told her to imagine dacoits had come inside the house and they were tying her hands. He then tied her hands and took out another rope, tied around her neck and strangled her. He touched her body and found it still to be warm. To ensure her death, he took out a knife and slit her throat.

The police are now on a probe into the money, handgloves and other materials used to commit the crime. The police are likely to take Satish’s parents into custody for questioning. Sources said the police have also decided to question a family friend identified as Mamatha from Lucknow who had played a key role in arranging their wedding. She is stated to be very close to a few top police officials in Bangalore.